DIET, DON’T DIE – AT IT (Part 2)

Welcome back! As promised, here’s the second part of Diet, Don’t Die-At It. Thank you so much for all the lovely feedback on the first part of this blog. I really hope all my advice has been helpful for you guys. Believe me, I get it, staying healthy and keeping the extra kilos off is hard but I have a few tricks up my sleeve that make it a little bit easier.

My 5 Personal Health Hacks

1. Don’t eat solid foods after 7

Eat lighter foods like soups, broths, and boiled vegetables before sleeping. This is great for digestion.

2. Intermittent Fasting

Contrary to what most believe, intermittent fasting is not a diet but a pattern of eating. Intermittent Fasting involves scheduling your meals to ensure that you get the most out of them. Intermittent Fasting is a good way to lose fat. Our bodies enter a fed state when it is absorbing and digesting food. The fed state starts when we begin to eat and lasts for about three to five hours. Our bodies cannot burn fat during the fed state because our insulin levels are very high. After this state, your body enters a post-absorptive state which basically means that your body isn’t processing a meal. This state lasts for 8-12 hours which is the ideal time to enter the fasting stage. This timeframe is ideal for to burn fat because your insulin levels are low. I choose to eat an early dinner and get a good 12 hours of fasting in before having breakfast the next morning but some people prefer to have a late dinner followed by a late lunch the next day. If you do decide to try out Intermittent Fasting, note down your period of fasting and the symptoms you experience. This is the best way to figure out what time frame works for you.

3. Swimming followed by steam

Swimming is a great form of exercise. After a few laps in the pool, a steam for 7-10 minutes is great for flushing out toxins. If you have low blood pressure be cautious when going for a steam, if you begin to feel dizzy get out ASAP and eat something to get your sugar levels up.

4. 3-4 bottles of water with lemon and ginger

Keep sipping on water that’s infused with lemon and ginger throughout the day. Keeping yourself hydrated solves so many of the issues you may be facing.

5. Cut down on sugar!

This is a hard one, believe me, I feel your pain. But trust me, cutting down your sugar intake for 14-15 days works wonders and if you really need a bit of sugar then replace it with something natural like dates or gud/ jaggery.

That last hack reminds me, I’m sure I’m not the only one that gets crazy sugar cravings when I’m PMSing. We all go through this phase where we just need sugar. My favourite go to snack is my easy-bake 4 ingredient cookies. It’s my PMS sugar-free dessert. As the name suggests, it’s sugar-free but it’s so yummy you won’t believe that it doesn’t have any sugar in it.

Ingredients

2 bananas

1 cup oats

Cinnamon Powder

Raisins

Walnuts

Method

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

• In a mixing bowl, smash 2 bananas.

• Add, one cup of oats and mix.

• Add a handful of raisins and walnuts, and mix well.

• Add cinnamon, to taste, and mix well.

• Create dough balls and place on a baking sheet.

• Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes.

As women, we need to have different diets and meal plans in different phases of our lives because what we eat plays a huge role in how we feel, our hormones and stress levels. Before jumping straight into foods that you crave without thinking, it might be useful to try and plan for it. Try to figure out a pattern for how you eat. Like, if a long weekend is coming up and you know you’re going to end up binging then maybe try to make sure you get a good balance between the healthy and unhealthy. Or if you know that you always get a crazy pre-period craving for sweet treats then plan ahead and do a healthier version of a sweet treat. But please, don’t deprive yourself of anything. Food=happiness. So, if you need that small bite of chocolate, go for it, but try to have it first thing in the morning or in the first half of your day, so you can burn it off throughout the day. Try not to eat late at night because your body doesn’t get the time to digest it properly and you wake up feeling bloated and uneasy. Try to get four hours between your last meal and sleeping. If you’re someone that wakes up really early then you can afford to eat a meal at 7pm because you’d generally be sleeping early. However, if you sleep and get up later then it wouldn’t be the same case. Alter your diet accordingly and always keep an eye out for things like acidity and other digestive problems that are associated with on and off dieting.

This is what works for my body type and lifestyle and altering your workouts and eating habits is so closely linked to the kind of life you lead. Trying to find what works best for you is the first leap to leading a healthier life and I hope this helped!

Do you guys have any special healthy hacks? Let me know in the comments. Stay tuned for a brand-new post up next week!

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ABOUT ME

Hi guys! You might find it strange to see me on this platform, especially such an overused one, but I feel like this provides me with a great space to converse freely & interact with you.
Think of this more as a journal where I share my thoughts with you & a purely personal space which will hopefully resonate with young girls & women.